2004 bottle laid in cellar for a few months. Coca-cola dark colour and strong Southampton carbonation. Mellowed taste, and medium mouthfeel not a thick Russian porter. Easy drink, but its like a Coca-Cola in strong caramel, though some grains of cocoa, I am sorry fans, please don't flame me. Enjoyable but overated.

Pours an almost opaque super dark brown with a dark khaki head that settles to an oily film on top of the beer. Small dots of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of dark malt, dark fruit, and slight roast aromas. Taste is the same with a mild roasty bitterness after each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a good RIS but it seems pretty subtle in my opinion.

Pours a dark, dark brown nearing on espresso black with a large tan-cream heading and a good amount of lacing as it goes down. Strong initial whiff with plenty of chocolate and roasted malt with a bit of anise in there as well. A little bit of alcohol thrown in there. Fairly full mouthfeel with good carbonation. Good drinkability, but not quite up there with the best of the RIS's I've had, although it's certainly a loaded category.

Appearance: Pours like a best in class; with a massive mocha-colored head sitting atop the pitch black liquid; doesn't hold its shape as long as some but splashes lace around the chalice

Smell: Sniffs a bit on the sweet side, with dark chocolate and coffee with cream; some hops and alcohol in the aroma as well

Taste: Rich milk chocolate, up front, with a burgeoning coffee and hop element that adds complexity through mid-palate; after the swallow, the alcohol adds another dimension, but the sweeter flavors edge out the hops in the final analysis, though there are plenty of hops in the finish

Mouthfeel: At first, it felt a bit overcarbonated, but after a few minutes the mouthfeel moved in a full-bodied and creamy direction

An aggressively roasted beer that holds all the halmarks of great beers of complexity, power, and body; but could use restraint on burnt qualities, in favor of roundness and delicacy.

The nose is chocked full of roast- Coffee, cocoa, and burnt fruits of currants, grapes, and berries. Other subtleties of dates, figs, plumbs, and raisons come into play but in complimentary fashion.

Flavors favor the burnt qaulities up front with French roast, charred fruits (sames as in the nose), licorice, molassas, toffeees and caramels. A dash of brown sugaras dance about the peripheries. Tasty and delicious although the roast quality dominates in a bullying fashion.

As the beer warms and as the carbonatiohn releases, the beer shows much more of a soft coffee and brownie mix that is much more appetizing than the over-carbonozed and abrasive start to the beer.

Full, creamy, and rich from the on-set, the beer carries the robust quality into a dry-malty alcoholic finish that stops short of the evaporative finish that I prefer. The acrid and nearly ashy finish makes the beer more harsh than I expect.

I know I'm being picky here but were discussing the differences between a great beer and world class beers. The balance here is tilted far toward the roast character, but still doesn't acheive the espresso balance than these beers deserve.

I cannot express the true appreciation that Ding deserves for sharing this beer. For this, I appreciate you my friend!

Bottle: Poured a deep pitch-black color stout with a huge medium brown foamy head with good retention and some good lacing. Aroma consists of roasted malt with clear notes of green hops with light floral and bitter notes. Taste was a very nice mix between some roasted malt with dry coffee notes, some rich black chocolate and some green bitter and floral hops. All the ingredient and flavour were well integrated and balanced. Body was full with a smooth creamy texture and good carbonation with no apparent alcohol. Not the most complex imperial stout that I have tasted but I must admit that everything was well balanced while still having some complexity.

So, I hunted and looked and finally was able to get my hands on one of these. I had heard mixed things about this one, but really wanted to judge for myself what this one was all about. I decided last night to unwrap the black foil and pop the cap on this beauty. Bottled on 2/16/08, this was going to be nice. The pour was huge, and absolutely perfect. Pitch black with absolutely no light shining through; it was like looking into a dark windowless room. A huge tan head formed on top that almost came out of the over sized wine glass it was in. Insanely good looking, I was foaming at the mouth when I looked at this one. A slight settling left behind a nice two finger head that lasted through the night, along with copious amounts of dripping chocolate colored lace all over the glass. Really just, perfect looking for the style, really hard not to be impressed with this one.

The aroma was just as huge as the appearance. Deep rich notes of sweet lactose sugar, with loads of cocoa mixed in. A very nice mingling of bitter dark coffee as well as a touch of vanilla. Really quite nice. There was a touch of some alcohol in there, but it mostly blended out by the time this one warmed up to the right temperature. Really a very solid score going for this one. The flavor was very nice, with a lighter feel then I would have expected. It was nicely carbonated, with even the last few drops a couple hours later still having a good deal of life left in them. Smooth across the palate, though a little thinner then expected, but this only added to its Drinkability. The flavor of cocoa dominated this one, with the rich bitter taste. Very nice coffee tones throughout, were really well blended. As it warmed, there was a touch of some earthy, woody type of hint that started to come through with hints of vanilla and sweet sugary notes coming in and out. The finish was perfect, with a nice little bit of a grassy hoppiness to it, but then shut down with a deep bitter chocolate taste and a gorgeous hint of vanilla lingering on forever. The alcohol was very well hidden in here, with it clocking in at over 10% I was amazed at how smooth it was. You really could barely taste anything in this one, and I had all I could do from drinking it too fast, and not giving it the time needed to really pick up some steam and show off what it could do. Really just a fantastic beer that they have made here.

Overall, I would have to say that this one more then lived up to the hype for me. It was just completely wonderful with a huge flavorful profile, a lightness that was rather unexpected, a beautiful finish and really just outstanding on all sides. I was more then impressed with this, and actually thought it over performed to my expectations. I would love to get more of this one as it was just that good, really just an enormously good beer and something I would have to recommend to anyone. Definitely up there with the best of the style.

Black in the glass with a dark tan head. Charred, chocolatey aroma. Undertones of coffee with a light fruitiness. There's a lot of charred bitterness on the palate, bordering on astringent, backed by spicy licorice flavors, espresso and a touch of chocolatey sweetness and dark fruit. Medium-full body, quite rich and flavorful but not necessarily my favorite take on the style. Less burnt bitterness and a touch more sweetness would be more to my liking. Solid stuff all the same.

T&M- Big sweetness, a higher sweetness of unfermentables. A bit too sweet as the burnt grain rides higher with a sharpness rather than complexity. Small complexity of estery dark berries and burnt coffee drive at the palate with a further sharpness. Smooth with a viscous creamy heavy body.

D- Couldn't finish the bottle ... I even let it warm up and tried again later to no avail. Not horrible but just misses the mark, I did not mind sipping about 6oz of it ... paired well with some dark Belgian Chocolate.

Lots of gratitude to unclejedi for sharing this tasty brew at Deuane's 40th birthday bash, poured chilled into a 1/2 pint

A - Pitch black color w/ head that gradually decompresses to a ring. The clarity is almost opaque with some head reviving as it is swirled. The bead is tiny and smatterings of lace stick and hold

S - The aroma is ultimatetly roasted w/ coffee scent emanating from the glass. The odor of blackberry and brown sugar w/ cocoa essence much like very dark chocolate and mild spice notes w/ toasted nuts and hints of vanilla intermingled in aromatic complexity. The nose has a slight hazelnut effect w/ light coconut tinged aroma the yeast is giving a lot of curious scents to this ale

D - The drinkability is very impressive to say the least, very possibly one of the best Imperial stouts I have had, nuanced and still strong without coming off as too alcholic, the complexity is there keeping you coming back for each additional sip. It is a shame it is not available year round- great example of the style.